Runner
by Keifren1ooo
Summary: The last white Pikmin still alive, and forced to take on a strange, violent world after the leaders have left, a white Pikmin strives to find a way to help repopulate the whites. He is constantly running from a lethal threat and becomes caught up in the affairs of others who need help. The story takes place after the events of Pikmin 2, but before Pikmin 3.
1. Running

**Note**: This story takes place after the events of Pikmin 2, but before the events of Pikmin 3. Just thought it'd be good if you knew that before reading. Anyways, enjoy the story!

* * *

It's just one of the traits of our kind. To run. Fast.

And that's what I did that dreadful afternoon, running from the monster who attacked us. We had worked so hard, used all our effort to adapt to the surface, to thrive...

* * *

_"Where do you think the leader's gone?" my friend asked._

_ "I don't know," I replied, "maybe... maybe somewhere beyond the sky."_

_ "You're crazy," the friend replied, looking at me with a skeptical look on his face. Of course, he wasn't being serious. It was just another day with me and a friend of mine, who was also the color white, like me. We liked to talk about the various oddities of the world, and we always made a joke about our topics in the end._

_ We really had nothing better to do. Our kind, the whites, had had to adapt to life on the surface after the leaders left. It was his ship where we and the purples originally nestled, but now that he was gone, we were forced to try to survive on the surface. So, our group of whites set ourselves the task to try and make our own Colored Ship, like the other colors of our kind had. The purples also set themselves their own task to create their own Colored Ship. They didn't do it with us, however, and they went off to the south, towards the Snowy Areas. Us the whites, stayed in the Forestry Areas of the west, as we didn't want to adapt to brand new weather._

* * *

_The purples,_ I thought as I continued to run from the monster. I had had a purple friend from their group, but we had been separated when the purples headed off to the south.

_I wonder if he's okay..._ I thought. I began to wonder if the monster had attacked the purples too. Are they still okay? Are they still thriving and developing while we, the whites, had to suffer the devastation of this monster?

_The monster..._

* * *

_"Shouldn't we be helping the others?" I asked my friend, as it was now getting dark._

_ "I guess so. It'd be really cool to be able to have our own Colored Ship!" my friend said, beaming. He had always been so intrigued at the thought of us having our very own Colored Ship, like the reds, yellows, and the blues. "Once we get one, we won't have to worry about anything anymore! It does everything for us! Protects us from the night, reproduces our kind, and we won't have to worry about having to go into a cave to reproduce!" He was sprouting all kinds of the good stuff that could come from having a Colored Ship now. He did that a lot. "Anyways, race you back to the group!" he shouted, and ran towards where we were temporarily living._

_ "Hey! Not fair! You had a headstart!" I ran after him, quickly catching up, and soon exceeding his pace. I was always one of the faster whites of our group, despite only having a leaf on my stem. I could easily outrun a white with a flower, despite my leaf._

_ "I win!" I yelled when we got back. My friend soon stopped beside me._

_ "You always win..." he said, looking at me with a face of disappointment. I couldn't think of any way to retaliate with that, so instead, I looked around at the group. There were only about 50 of us left, if I had to guess. We used to have a little more than a hundred, but many of us died soon after the leaders left. We were still trying to find out ways to create the Colored Ship. We were making progress so far... I think._

_ "Where were you guys?" one of the whites approached, "You've been out for almost the entire day!"_

_ "Oh please," I said, "I bet it wasn't _that_bad." Sure, we _had_ been out until the fiery ball had almost set._

_ "Well, it's almost dark now, but now that you're here, why don't you-"_

raaaaAAWWWWWRRR!

_ …_

_ …_

_ "W-what was that?" my friend quietly, nervously whispered._

_ "U-uh..." I tried to form words, but only that feeble response got out. In all of our time adapting to life on land, we had never, ever heard an angry cry as frightening as the one that just echoed through the forest. Everyone was dead silent, trying to make out what was the thing that made that sound. It sounded like a large monster... but it also sounded like something else, something hostile, dangerous..._

_ "Everybody, camouflage!" It was the one way that we were able to survive during the night – we would find a bush or some other foliage to get in, and then we would appear as if we were just flowers or leaves but sticking our stems out of the greenery. We did that this time, and soon all of us got in our respectful positions. I happened to be next to my friend in one of the bushes. He tried to talk with me while we were in the bush,_

_ "What do you think that-"_

**raaaaRRRRRAAAAA!**

_It was the kind of scream that chilled your entire body, the kind that made you want to bury yourself in fear and terror._

_ "Shhh! Be quiet!" I rasped at him. He immediately obliged as we peeked through holes in the bush._

_ There it was. It was a large, almost indescribable beast. It was about the height of about 15 of us stacked head to toe. I tried to make out any more features of the creature, but it was too dark to see much. The only other thing I could make out was a blurry silhouette of the monster. _

_ We tried to stay quiet. We couldn't possibly defeat this large thing alone! And none of us were even _thinking _about sacrificing ourselves. Us whites are usually good at one thing when it comes to fighting: Dying._

_ If we happened to die, our body lets out one last offensive move, which is to release the poison within out bodies. It usually kills the enemy in the process. Of course, this was a last resort move, as none of us like the prospect of just throwing our lives away like that._

_ So, we simply hid and stared at the large creature, hoping that it would just go away and not notice us._

_ Of course, we were wrong._

_ The monster came up to one of the bushes, where I knew a group of at least 5 were hiding. The monster dove in on the bush, and literally ripped the entire foliage out of the ground with its mouth carrying the group of 5 with him! It scarfed down the group and the greenery too._

Sorry guys... _I thought to myself, _Looks like you guys are the sacrifice for this monster...

_I watched to see if the monster was soon going to begin to thrash around, and soon fall to the ground. All the other creatures who ate one of our color did this. And this one ate five of us too! It was surely going to die soon enough._

_ But to my surprise, it didn't. It kept walking around, and to my horror, ate another group of whites. It repeated this process over and over again, all the while I stayed rooted to the spot, watching all my friends die right before my eyes._

_ And then began to approach the bush where me and my friend stayed. I couldn't die right here, right now! But I didn't have a choice... did I?_

_ "Bye, friend," My friend said to me, "looks like we're about to become a sacrifice too, with no effect..."_

_ "No!" I couldn't take it, I _did_ have a choice, didn't I!? It's to run, an instinct of our kind to prevent something like this._

_ I dispatched myself from the bush, and began to run away from that horrible creature._

_ "Wait! Where are- AAAAA_HHHHHH!_" I didn't look back. My friend was probably already dead, but I had to keep running. I _had_ to escape this monster! I ran as far away as I can, all the while, I kept thinking, sorry._

_I also kept thinking, why? I think I knew why. It was just nature to be cruel like this. We can't escape it's grasp, and we're forced to oblige by nature's will. I didn't care though, all I cared right now was to defy this, to escape._

_ To survive._

* * *

_Keep running, _I thought to myself, _It could still be following you, it could still be chasing._

I don't know how long I had been running. It was now pitch dark. I'm lucky not to have encountered any other monsters as I ran, but those monsters were at the back of my mind. Spotted Red-Rumps, Pincer Beetles, and Hopping Fatfrogs were nothing compared to this horror that I experienced. I kept running, for hours, but I couldn't bear stop. I didn't even feel tired this whole time. Every time I began to feel little tired, the adrenaline of fear would come back to me as I'm reminded of the monster, and I would run even faster.

I still couldn't believe it though. After all we had worked through, how could we have been defeated this easily? I began to wonder what had happened to the other whites. Were they still alive, or... was I the only white left? It was too much to bear or even think about, being the last one alive.

But even so, I didn't let the stress bog me down, but thinking about this made me feel even worse than I already was. Everyone I had known were now gone. The leaders, whom I had looked up to, had gone away from the planet. The other species, the reds, yellows, blues, and purples had gone off to who knows where, and we whites were left to survive for ourselves. And now, the all the whites were dead, everyone but me. The thought gave me an overwhelming feeling of languish and despair. I wanted to cry, but I still needed to devote my energy to escaping this beast. I didn't even know if the beast was still chasing me, or if it had even went after me when I first escaped. I still needed to keep going though. I needed to keep going to survive.

I needed to keep running.

* * *

**Disclaimer**: Why, of course I own Pikmin! It's not like this is a terribly written Fanfiction or anything! ... Okay, so I don't own Pikmin, but you guys already knew that, and I bet 99% percent of you aren't even reading this disclaimer...

**Note from Author**: This is what happens when you do nothing but homework for hours on end while listening to music: You come up with a random idea for a story. No, this does not mean I'm going to stop updating "The Universe of Pikmin" anymore, this is just a side story that I'll update whenever I feel like it (which will probably be very rarely).


	2. Escaping

_Please go away, _I thought, _I just want to live another day..._

I had woken up in the little alcove that I had found the previous night. It was just a small hole encased into the side of a wall, but it was large enough for me to squeeze myself into to take shelter in. I had eventually grown tired after running for hours from the beast last night, so I decided to take shelter in this here recess. It was not the best place to stay in. The soil was hard-crusted, places of stone sticking out from the dirt around me, threatening to poke me at the slightest wrong move. I was desperate though, and this was the nearest form of shelter I could find.

When I woke up this morning, I was greeted with the horror of a large Spotted Red-Rump, just waiting for me to step outside and have its feast. It's large snout was sniffing outside my little shelter. I could feel its stalk-like eyes watching the alcove, waiting for me to come out to serve as its feast. All I could see from my little crevasse though was the creature's feet. It had two large toes, and it kept shifting around, trying to find some way to shove its jaw into the opening, open its maw and...

Of course, I could just let the Red-Rump eat me, killing the monster in the process, but of course, that would mean the death of me, along with the Red-Rump.

So, I waited it out. _It should get bored at some point, _I assumed.

One minute.

Five minutes.

Ten minutes to thirty.

Thirty to an hour.

_C'mon, the monster can't be _that_ desperate._ I was beginning to get desperate myself, mainly because of boredom, but also because of having to stay uncomfortably in that tiny hole while under the pressure of a large monster anticipating my leave of the alcove.

_I could always dig..._ Another trait of whites. No, we weren't fast or natural diggers; that belonged to the yellows. We are, however, able to see through the dirt. Actually, _see_ing isn't the best description. More like, we _sense_ what is around us. Really, it's hard to explain, but I was ready to resort to digging myself out if I needed to.

I decided to wait just a little bit longer. Maybe it will go away in a few more minutes.

I was wrong. Soon, smaller versions of the Red-Rump showed up. I was terrified, as the snouts of the small Red-Rumps were shoved into the alcove, their jaws snapping, just out of reach of my stem.

_That's it. I'm digging out._ I decided. It was hard to be able to dig while my body was cramped in the small space, but I had to start somewhere. Using my stem, I began to dig out chunks of the dirt to my right. I could sense that an exit to the outside was hidden to my right, so I kept digging in that direction.

It wasn't the best trying to dig in a cramped space, while spiky bits of stone tried to poke at me as I continued to shove my stem in and out of the dirt, taking out bits of dirt, little by little. Eventually, I made a little progress, and I had a bit more space to maneuver. I kept going at it, more and more, as the earth gradually wore away. A pile of the dirt began to form to the entrance where the Red-Rumps were waiting, sealing off that way out. I heard the Red-Rumps cry in distress as the entrance began to seal up, but I paid them no mind. They'd have to find their meal elsewhere.

Finally, as I struck my stem one last time at the dirt, the entire wall in front of me collapsed, and I was doused with golden rays from a hole above. I climbed my way out of the hole, and saw that I was now on a cliff slightly above the Red-Rumps. I looked over the cliff, and saw the Red-Rumps still piled up at the now slightly blocked off entrance to the alcove. Along with the Red-Rumps, I saw some Pincer Beetles along with it too. I shuddered a bit. The Pincer Beetles were small enough to have fit into the alcove. If was still in the cave by the time the Pincer Beetles arrived...

_Better not alert them,_ I quietly turned around, and took my leave, making sure not to step on anything that would make a sudden noise. When I had gotten a good distance away from them, I finally realized just how futile a situation I was in.

I was lost.

I was stranded.

I was alone.

_Damn it..._ What was I going to do now? I needed help. Desperately.

Maybe... maybe...

Another species type. That's what I'll do... I think. I would just have to find another color of our kind... but how the hell am I going to do that!? The purples have probably already made their way to the Snowy Areas in the south. And I was all the way in the west, in the Forestry Areas.

I tried to think for a moment. There was still the Ocean Areas in the north, and the Tropical Areas in the east. The blues were most likely somewhere in the Ocean Areas. They were always water-lovers. The problem? It takes days to traverse from one Area to another. I wasn't really feeling like traversing into another Area. So that left me with exploring the rest of the Forestry Areas. I could only hope the reds or the yellows were still hanging around in this area...

I set off at a running pace. I didn't know where I was running, but I trusted myself that I was heading in the right direction, wherever _that_ was.

I noticed now that the fiery ball in the sky was now almost close to setting. The fact that I overslept, combined with that I had spent a lot of time trying to safely get out of that cramped alcove, meant that I had wasted a lot of time with the day. Of course, I could always try to explore during the night, but that was dangerous.

As I ran, my energy gradually began to return to me. I don't what it is about our species, but our species are able to somehow regain our energy during the day. I remember someone from the yellows rattling on about how he thought that we got our energy by "absorbing light with our stems to create energy." It sounded a bit too far-fetched, so I didn't believe him. Could he have been right though? I guess anything was possible in this world...

**RRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!**

…

…

_No..._ It couldn't be. No no no no no... _I've only been running for an hour or two! I didn't even make any progress! How can I possibly-_

**RRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!**

I paralyzed on the spot. The fear coursed through my body, the resolution gradually escaping, leaving me a terrified statue, standing in the middle of a crisis situation. What could I do!? I tried to move, but I was too paralyzed from fear... that I... just... couldn't...

"_What are you doing_!? You're a white so KEEP RUNNING!" someone shouted behind me. Suddenly, I was being pulled along by the arm by a yellow blur.

Feeling suddenly all came back to me, the adrenaline giving me energy, the will to survive propelling me forward. And with that, I sprinted forward, thinking of nothing else but running, escaping from this terrifying monster. I lost sight of everything around me, as I concentrated purely on devoting energy to all-out sprinting.

"Hey! Wait up!" the yellow one shouted from far behind me. I didn't pay attention to him though. I didn't care. I needed to survive, and I couldn't hinder myself in any way.

I just kept running.

Sprinting.

Jumping.

…

Stopping. I finally stopped. Once again, I didn't keep any track of time. How long have I been running? One minute? Ten minutes? An hour? Maybe I've even been running a for a day?

No, I couldn't have run for _that_ long. I probably ran for only five minutes. I quickly listened around me.

No roars.

No danger.

No monsters.

All I could hear was nature performing its peaceful duties. The chirpers were chirping away, the wind tugging at the nearby grass, and the flowers were still singing their songs. Only our kind was able to hear the songs that the flowers sing. I began to listen to the cheer that the flowers were singing this time, and I began to feel peaceful again...

And then I remembered the yellow blur that had helped me. I suddenly began to remember what he looked like with increasing horror at what he looked like.

He had had a flower on a stem, just like mine. He was one of our kind. He was a yellow.

And I had left him for dead. The realization sunk in, and I felt terrible. I had already abandoned the whites, my own kind, as I left them while they boldly sacrificed themselves to the monster that had attacked us. Now, I had abandoned a yellow, another color of our species.

I was always prone to doing this. When faced with a crisis situation, I would panic, and run away. Now though, I was truly feeling the guilt and remorse for what I had done. I decided to do what I should have done when I was running just a few minutes before.

I was going to help him. The yellow. He may not be still alive, but if he was, I wanted to at least _try_ to help him. I don't really know how well that will work out though...

_You'll find out when that happens._ I sternly told myself. I tried to tell myself that this time I won't run away. Of course, I wasn't sure if that was true.

It was already too late though. I began to walk back. In the direction of the monster, and a yellow who needed help.

* * *

**Disclaimer**: Don't own Pikmin. Wish I did...

**Note from Author**: If there are those of you who don't know what I mean by "Red-Rump" yet, then you _really_ need to play Pikmin. Also, the "monster" doesn't have a definite description, so you can make up in your heads what you think the monster looks like. Reviews and criticism is greatly appreciated. Thank you!


	3. Returning

Flowers swaying side-by-side, singing their songs. The grass being tugged along by the sparse breezes. The fiery ball in the sky, nearing dawn and setting, creating a mixed canvas of orange and a tender peach color, and in some places, a hue of deep crimson near the setting ball.

And yet, none of this was particularly peaceful. If anything, it made the scenario even more impending than before. For I was doing something which I knew I would regret; returning to help out another of my kind, a yellow.

The walk shouldn't have taken more than 20 minutes, at most. And yet, each passing second seemed like another moment that all but hindered the doom that slowly crept inside me as, step by step, I neared the place where the yellow one had saved me. At least, I _think_ I was walking towards the place where the yellow and I ran. It was hard to know exactly my sense of direction with the ginormous thicket of trees blocking the sky from view.

_Why am I doing this?_ I thought with uncertainty. For once, I wasn't actually running away from a battle completely. This time I was actually returning, and trying to hopelessly help someone, who for all I knew, was probably already dead, eaten by this terrible monster. This one wasn't even a white, like me, but was a yellow, a completely different color of our kind.

But I kept walking. My feet were acting of its own accord. I think I was getting close... maybe. I probably wasn't even heading in the right direction, for all I knew. But I trusted myself with this.

Eighteen minutes had passed (or was it eighteen years?). The surroundings around me were beginning to get familiar. This was the large branch I had jumped over while running. And here was the steep slope that I hurriedly climbed up.

And here... here it was. I was standing in a large, open field, the place where I had first heard the monster. The place where I had become paralyzed with fear...

And where I was saved by the yellow. And left him for dead. No one was here anymore. The monster had seemed to suddenly vanish. The yellow was gone too. The entire area was hushed and quiet, as if it remembered what had happened in this very place.

_Of course, _I thought, _he's dead. I wasted my damn time. And now, I just risked my survival..._ A sudden welt of frustration grew inside me, and I vented it on the ground beneath me. I watched the dust particles steadily fly in the air, and disappear. I readied myself to kick at the ground one more time...

And then I saw it. Footprints. Not my footprints, but another trail of footprints. The thing about these footprints though, was that it ran across the entire area. The footprints seemed to have originated from a place somewhere to the left, and they zigzagged haphazardly across the area all the way to the right.

I went up to one of the footprints, and compared it with my foot. The footprint was slightly larger than my own, but there was no doubt about it. These footprints were of my kind.

And they were most likely from the yellow's.

Before following the footprints that would lead me to the yellow, I decided to follow the footprints backwards, towards the source. I felt stupid for doing so, but I was curious as to where the yellow came from.

So I went to the left, heading west towards the fiery ball, following the footprints backwards where it should eventually lead me to the source.

I could see the sky was beginning to darken as I walked, so I tried to quicken my pace. I should be able to find the source before the sky gets pitch dark, then I'll walk back and follow the footprints in the right direction, so I could find the yellow... if he wasn't dead already.

_The footprints lead up there._ I affirmed to myself, seeing the footprints lead up to the top of a small hill after a few minutes of following the footprints backwards. I ran up to the top, and looked down at what I saw from above.

I could make out a somewhat large field, but at this point, it was getting too dark to see much, as this part of the forest was heavily wooded, and it was almost night-time. I steadily made my way down the hill to get a closer look at what was below here. I could make out odd shapes lying across the floor. I went up to one of these odd shapes, and touched it with my right hand.

The figure felt, oddly... sticky. As I felt around some more, the weird thing also felt... soft. I pulled my hand away, but something stuck on. I took a close look at my right hand, and felt with my left hand what had stuck onto it.

The thing that stuck onto my right hand was a dense, slightly sticky liquid. It felt oddly familiar.

And then I realized what this thing sticking on my hand was. It was blood.

Blood from our own kind.

I managed to stifle a scream just before it was released. My heart was thumping rapidly. Did I really just touch the dead body of a...?

I looked around at the scene I was standing in once more. I now knew what those odd, dark shapes that I saw before are. They were the numerous dead bodies of yellows, scattered across this valley. If I looked closely, I could see that many of the bodies had been amputated. Limbs were torn off and missing from the corpses, ears nibbled off into small nubs. The dense, filthy liquid of their remains splattered across the scene.

And their eyes. Unblinking, dead eyes, staring off into the unknown. If I looked closely, I could still see the fear and panic burned into their eyes. They had obviously seen something traumatic before they had died. It chilled me to the bone, and fear slowly crept it's way into me as I began to wonder just what had happened in this place.

_I need to get out of here. I need to find that yellow and make him tell me what happened here! _I thought anxiously to myself. I tried to turn around, but the scene before me was too strong too simply just look away from. It was as if the sight of all these dead bodies had lulled me into a terrifying trance.

_Gggrrrrrr..._

I was snapped out of my trance as I heard that soft growl somewhere a few yards to my left.

And I saw the stalk-like eyes. I couldn't see the rest of the body, but it's eyes were what gave it away, as they seemed to glow in the dark. They were hostile eyes, one that was ready to kill, staring right at me. If I looked closely, I could see faint red spots covering its pitch-black hide that camouflaged with the darkness.

A Spotted Black-Rump. It's motive was obvious. It wanted me dead. But I wasn't going to let that happen.

Instinct kicked in again, and I quickly turned and ran at top speed back to the hill. The black monster behind me let out a terrifying roar, and I could tell that it was now giving chase. I didn't dare to look back though, so I ran up the hill, and followed the footprints back the way I came. It was too dark to fully make out the prints in the dirt, but in my panic, I gained a heightening of my senses, and I could tell that I was heading in the right direction. I kept running at top speed, and I could hear the thumping of the Black-Rump following me, determined not to lose its kill.

I made it to the area where I first found the footprints in record time, and I continued running to follow the footprints towards the east, where I should have gone before.

_Why was I so _stupid_!?_ I thought angrily,_ I should have just followed the footprints this way in the first place, towards the east, so I wouldn't have to be in this mess..._

_GGGRRRRAAAAAGGGHHHH!_

I heard the angry roar of the monster behind me, clearly frustrated at my escape, and how I was slowly beginning to lose it. _Just keep following the footprints, just keep following the footprints..._ I repeated to myself. The panic in me was terrifying, yet all too familiar. It was the third time in the span of two days where I had to run like this, running for my life in a panic.

And the first two times, I had abandoned those who needed my help...

_Don't think about that! I need to survive, and I have to do anything to keep myself alive!_ I continued to run faster, this new thought of unconditional survival fueling me with energy.

I kept running. Following the footprints as my guide. I kept following them...

...Until they suddenly just stopped. There were no more footprints to follow. I could have kept running in some unknown direction, but this sudden change slowed me to a stop. The footprints couldn't just end like that! Why would they just suddenly disappear...?

_Grrrrraaaaa...!_

I could hear the faint roar off in the distance, the Black-Rump still determined to find and kill me. I began to panic. I've become so dependent on following the footprints, that I felt as if I needed them to keep running, and that I needed them to guide me.

"Hey! Catch!"

_What the...? _I heard a voice from somewhere above me, but I couldn't make out exactly who had said that. Suddenly, something was flying towards me from above. I caught the object. It was round, large, and slightly heavy. The odd thing about it was that there were glowing fissures scattered around the object. I immediately recognized it. It was a bomb rock.

And it was already set off.

"What are you doing looking so dumbstruck!? Throw the damn thing!" I still didn't know where the voice was coming from, but I slowly recognized it.

It was the voice of the yellow, and he was saving me for a second time. I shook myself out of my confusion, and realized what the yellow wanted me to do. There was only a few more seconds before the bomb exploded, and I needed to make sure that I put it to good use.

I saw the monster just a few yards away. I ran towards it, and the monster flinched back, as if surprised at the sudden act that I was doing.

_Three. _I was almost there. Just a few more yards...

_Two._ The Black-Rump, regaining its composure, yelled a sort of battle cry, and began to run at me as I ran towards it. There was now just 15 feet separating us. It was almost perfect...

_One._ I threw the bomb-rock with all my strength at the monster just as I was 5 feet away from the monster. The monster had its mouth wide open, probably expecting me to just run inside for an easy kill.

Instead, it swallowed the glowing rock, and the bomb exploded the moment the Black-Rump closed it's mouth. The blast was very powerful, and I was caught in the explosion.

There was a bright flash of light, and I was sent hurling through the air, and I crashed my head into something hard, immediately blacking out, but not before feeling the remains of the Black-Rump scatter across the area, and seeing something yellow drop down from a tree from above...

* * *

"Hey look. You're _finally _awake." I woke to an almost mocking voice. Bright light streamed into my eyes as I opened them, and I immediately saw the clusters of dark green above me, mixed with the spots of light blue from the sky. It was clearly day time, and I was still in the forest.

I sat up, and looked to my right where I heard the voice. I saw the yellow one sitting there, arms crossed and staring at me.

"You were _caked_ in blood y'know." he said, "Blood from both Pikmin _and_ monsters. Do you know how long it took for me get all of it off your body?"

"Uh... thanks." I managed to croak, "Um... what's a Pikmin?"

"Really? You have no idea what I meant when I said Pikmin?" I shook my head, "Haven't you been listening to anything the leaders said? That's what the leaders called us. Pikmin!"

"Oh..." I simply replied. Sure, I _did_ respect the leaders, and often looked up to them. That didn't mean I actually listened to them all the time though...

"So you're a white Pikmin, right? I wasn't just helping a decoy this entire time?" the yellow Pikmin asked sarcastically.

"Uh, yeah. I'm a white... Pikmin." I said responded, trying to get used to the species name. "How long have I been out?"

"Not too long. Just about one and a half days. You were light, so it was easy to carry you all this way." the yellow Pikmin replied. "Just in case you were wondering, I'm trying to reach the Tropical Areas from here. Y'know, the area in the east? I want to know if the yellow Onion went there. I thought I may as well being you along too. I wouldn't want to leave a fellow Pikmin for dead, and you might be able to help me!"

"Um... Okay." I replied, hesitating slightly before responding with an OK. I was usually very trusting when it came to other Pikmin, so I decided that I may as well travel with the yellow. It's not like I had anything better to do anyways...

After thinking for a bit, I then realized what the yellow Pikmin just said. He said that he wanted to know where the "yellow Onion" had went. My first thought was what an Onion was. "So... what's an Onion?" I asked with uncertainty.

"What!? Have you been living in a cave?"

"..."

"Oh, sorry." the yellow Pikmin replied, realizing where white Pikmin came from, "Uh, anyways, an Onion was what the leader called our Colored Ships."

"Oh, okay." I decided to ask one more question, "So, what happened with _your _Colore- err, Onion?"

"I... I don't want to talk about it..." he quietly replied, looking away from me.

"I think I know what happened," I said, realizing what I saw two nights ago, "I... I saw a lot of dead yellow Pikmin the same night that the Black-Rump was chasing me. Were those...?"

"Please..." the yellow Pikmin quickly interrupted, "stop. I said that I don't want to talk about it... I think I might still be the last yellow Pikmin still here in the Forestry Areas. My Onion abandoned me and a few other yellow Pikmin and..." I could see that the yellow Pikmin couldn't go on without breaking down, so I said,

"Let's just go then. We can talk about what happened as we walk." The yellow Pikmin and I steadily got up, and headed towards the east. I took a glance up at the sky, and could slightly see the brightness of the fiery ball poking out through the leaves directly above us. It was about noon time.

As we walked, I tried to talk to the yellow Pikmin some more, but he seemed reluctant to give any info.

"If it makes you feel any better, all the white Pikmin I've ever known is dead." I told the yellow Pikmin.

"Really? H-How?" he asked. I told him about what had happened three days ago. About how a terrifying monster came and ate all the white Pikmin, but wasn't being affected the poison.

"I managed to escape, but... I think all the other white Pikmin I know had died..." We stayed silent for while, but then the yellow Pikmin suddenly gasped.

"Wait! Did you say that a large monster came and attacked you? Was this monster the same one that we were running from two days ago?"

"Yeah, that was it. Wait a minute, you're not saying that the monster also..."

"Yes, it was! That's the stupid creature that killed my friends! That monster's the damn reason I'm in exile in the first place!" the yellow Pikmin yelled. He vented his anger on a nearby tree by kicking it. It was a really hard kick, and I was surprised the yellow Pikmin didn't seem fazed. The yellow Pikmin eventually calmed down, and he sighed. "Sorry, it's just... I think I should probably tell you what happened, but first, let's find some shelter somewhere. It's starting to get dark."

I agreed to this, and we wandered around a bit trying to find a suitable place to stay for the night. We eventually managed to find a small cave, cleverly hidden behind some foliage. The yellow Pikmin and I went in just as the fiery ball was beginning to set.

"Alright then, you mind telling me what happened?" I asked. The yellow Pikmin took a deep breath, and replied,

"All right. I'll tell you. You would've found out sooner or later anyways. This is what happened..."

* * *

**Disclaimer**: Of course I don't own Pikmin if this is on a Fanfiction website!

**Note from Author**: Don't you love it when the author puts a cliff-hanger? Just to let you guys know, I'll be following the Pikmin 3 way of how bomb rocks are used; all Pikmin types can use bomb rocks, not just yellows. Yellows are just going to be more "specialized" at handling bomb rocks. Anyways, reviews would be appreciated as always, and constructive criticism would also be _greatly_ appreciated, as it helps me become a better writer. Thanks for reading!


	4. Border

**Note**: This chapter should clear up any confusion from last chapter because of the terrible way I wrote last chapter. To be honest, I kind of rushed last chapter, which is why it was probably hard to understand. And one more thing: whenever I describe things with measurements (such as inches, feet, yards, miles, etc.), I'm not talking about the human version of those measurements, because as we all know (or should know), a Pikmin is only about a centimeter tall. So when I use those measurements, I use them relative to the Pikmin's size. Anyways, here's the next chapter! I think I did much better with this chapter than the last, so enjoy!

* * *

_"Hey! Ya finished with that? It's getting dark, so we should leave soon!"_

_ "I'm almost done! Sheesh, don't get yourself so worked up. Y'know that we need as many supplies as we can get, now that the leaders are gone. It's not even five o'clock yet! If anything, you should grateful I'm working so hard with-"_

_ "Alright, alright! Just wanted to remind you..."_

_ I rolled my eyes. My friend was being paranoid, as usual, trying to "remind" me of the dangers that could happen if we're not careful. Now that the leaders were gone to wherever they always flew off to, us Pikmin were once again left to fend for our own survival._

_ The red and blue Pikmin had flew off to who knows where. I had heard that the white and purple Pikmin were trying to build their own Onions, though I don't know how well they were faring with that._

_ Us yellow Pikmin decided to stay in the Forestry Areas in the west. It was always moderate climate here, and vegetation and food supply was always abundant._

_ Right now, I was outside with about seven other yellow Pikmin. All of us had flowers on our stems, and we were trying to find any pellets, nectar, and any other supply that could be of use to us. So far, we had already found five pellets, and I was now tackling one more posy for a sixth pellet. The flower shrank and crumbled, and the pellet dropped with a light thud. I picked up the pellet and yelled to the others,_

_ "Okay! I think this is enough! We can head back now," The rest of the yellows and I regrouped, and we began to head back to our Onion with our seven pellets. I looked up at the sky, which was turning into a fuzzy orange color from the setting of the fiery ball, and once again thought about where the leaders could have possibly disappeared too. It was the third time the leaders have done this._

_ The first time, we had helped that one red leader find these weird, large, metallic objects to be brought to his ship. He disappeared for a few days after that._

_ The second time, we had helped the red leader and a new blue leader find random objects across the world. They disappeared for a day after that, only for the red leader to return with a large, chubby man with a whistle that pierced through our sensitive ears._

_ And after we had helped those two find the blue leader in a deep cave, they had now for a third time left us. It was hard not to be angry at them when they just kept leaving us like this. Like all the other Pikmin though, we were still grateful to them for what they've done for us in the long run. Helping us to repopulate and teaching us survival skills..._

**RRRRRAAAAAAAAA!**

_…_

_ …_

_ "W-What was that?" one of the other yellows asked nervously._

_ "I don't think I've ever heard a roar like that..." another yellow quietly said out loud._

_ "L-Let's just quicken our pace," my friend said, "If we want to survive, we need to get to the Onion ASAP." The rest of us agreed, and we set off at a running pace towards the Onion._

_ STOMP..._

_STOMP..._

_"It's getting closer!" I yelled._

_ "You don't think we know that already!?" one of the other yellows accused. We began to run faster. It was hard to carry seven pellets with just eight of us though and still try to be running at a fast pace._

_ "We need to drop some of the pellets!" I shouted, "We can't outrun it without dropping some of our supplies!" We dropped two of our pellets, so we now only had four pellets with two Pikmin carrying each. With the lightening of our supplies, we could now run faster..._

_ **BOOM!**_

_** STOMP!**_

_ … but we still weren't fast enough. With each passing second, we could hear whatever creature it was chasing after us. We tried running faster and faster still._

_ And then I looked behind us, just to see the giant figure looming above us. In that split second, I could see the dark silhouette of the monster behind us. Despite the fact that it was still fairly bright outside, I couldn't make out anything more of the ginormous creature, just its silhouette. That didn't make it any less frightening though._

_ "Guys! Look, it's right on our tail!" I warned._

_ "Grrr," one of the other yellows said, "Gah! Screw this," That same yellow let go of the pellet he was holding, and took off running towards the Onion._

_ "Hey! You're supposed to be helping me!" said the yellow who now had to carry the pellet by himself. "I...I can't keep up!" he said as he began to fall behind from the group, "S-Sorry guys!" Obviously feeling stressed that he had to carry the pellet by himself, he dropped the pellet and took of running towards the Onion too._

_ Soon, the other Pikmin began to drop their pellets and began to sprint back to the Onion, until it was just me and my friend who were still trying to carry our pellet back._

_ "I-I think we need to bail!" I shouted to my friend._

_ "But-"_

_ "Do you want to live or not!?" My friend gave me a sad look when I said that remark. Then he let go and took off running with the others. I quickly followed suit, although I felt a bit guilty for having to leave behind the supplies we worked so hard to acquire..._

**RRRRRAAAAAAAAA!**

_I heard one of the yellows cursing under his breath. Another one was panting hysterically._

_ "We're almost there!" I tried to yell encouragingly, although I didn't know if the remark was actually helping._

_ "Over there! Over that hill!" my friend yelled, indicating to a hill a few yards in front of us. We ran as fast as we could up the hill, and looked down at the valley below._

_ "There's the Onion!" I screamed. There, in the middle of the small valley, we could make out the familiar yellow of our Onion._

_ "B-But, it's leaving without us!" one of the other yellows indicated. To our horror, we could see the Onion begin to recede its three legs._

_ "NO!" my friend yelled. He ran towards the Onion, and the rest of followed. Before the Onion could get too high, my friend jumped towards the Onion. To our surprise, he was able to grab and hold onto one of the legs of the Onion. By the time the rest of us got under the Onion, it was already too high for us to possibly reach it. I saw my friend give one last glance back to us. He gave me a glance that was filled with sorrow, and I returned that glance. Why?_

_ We had been left for dead. It wasn't even close to night time, yet the Onion had left early, presumably because they heard the monster approaching and decided to leave early as a safety precaution._

_ The rest of us watched in sadness as the Onion flew away..._

_ "We're going to die..." one of the yellows said quietly._

_ "You can't say that!" I accused, "We can still run, or-"_

_ "A bit too late for that y'know," another yellow interrupted me, "just look behind us,"_

_ We turned around, and saw the horrifying creature looming over us. It was ready to pounce, to get on us and..._

_ Jump. And that's what it did. It leaped into the air towards us, its giant maw gaping wide open, ready to rip us apart..._

_ No. I wasn't going to let that happen. In the split second that the monster was in the air, I rolled to my left, and..._

_ **BOOM!**_

_ I felt the entire ground shake as the creature landed. I winced, expecting to be crushed by the monster, but I looked to my right, and saw that I wasn't the victim of death, but the other yellows were. I saw them crushed under the monster. I was horrified at the sight._

_ But I was also grateful. Not in a scornful way, but it was the kind of happiness that you get from simply being alive. But that wasn't going to last. It didn't change the fact that I was still in danger of being dead in the next few seconds._

_ So I simply ran. I wasn't a white Pikmin, but everyone has that simple instinct to run from danger. I looked behind me once, but I instantly regretted it. I saw the monster ripping apart parts of the yellow Pikmin it had crushed, but I couldn't bear to look at any more. I took the opportunity to run away from the scene, despite having the crushing sense of guilt in me as I ran away._

Don't think about them..._ I thought to myself, _I need to get away from here, as far away as I can from that monster...

_ I don't remember how long I was running. After a while, I began to hear the monster roaring again, which only encouraged me to run faster. It was hard for me to keep running though. Running just wasn't a natural trait of yellow Pikmin. If only I was a white Pikmin..._

_ Wait a minute, _Is that a white Pikmin I see!?_ I though incredulously to myself. There, standing dumbstruck in the middle of a field was a white Pikmin with a leaf on his stem. How could he just be standing there with such an imminent threat not too far away!?_

"What are you doing_!? You're a white so KEEP RUNNING!" I screamed at him. I didn't want to just leave him for dead, do I pulled him along by the arm. That seemed to snap him back to reality, and he began to start running..._

_ … A little too fast. Despite being a leaf, he was strikingly speedy, and was soon _way_ too far ahead of me._

_ "Hey! Wait up!" I shouted at him. He seemed oblivious to my plea though, and just kept running and running..._

I... I need... to stop..._ I thought to myself. I slowly came to a stop and began to pant tremendously. I was exhausted, but I still wasn't safe. That white Pikmin had abandoned me, so I needed to find a way to survive on my own. I couldn't hear the monster anymore, but that didn't mean that it was gone._

_ I began to hurriedly look around a bit, trying to find someplace to hide. I eventually found a tree covered with many leaves and had low branches. I was glad that this tree was small, considering that all the other trees in the forest towered high above us. I began to steadily climb the branches of the tree until I was sure I had reached a high enough place while also being obscured by the leaves of the tree. There were also some bomb rocks up here, which I found peculiar, but decided that they could come in handy later._

_ As I sat in the tree, I thought of the other yellow Pikmin who had died, and how they were crushed and ripped apart limb by limb from the monster, and..._

Don't think of that. _I thought firmly to myself. I decided to turn my thoughts to the Onion and how my friend was able to grab on to one of the Onion's legs just as it flew away. I wonder where the Onion was going to go?_

Probably not back here..._ I thought sadly to myself. No way they were going to come back to the Forestry Areas knowing that there was this terrible beast here. Most likely they'll have moved to another area, and I immediately though of the Tropical Areas in the east. I wanted to find and return to my Onion, so I decided that I would start heading east when I was sure that the coast was clear._

_ Two hours passed._

_ It was already pitch-black. It was too uncomfortable and dangerous sleep in the tree, so I needed to drop down soon to find a suitable shelter..._

_ ...Until I heard something running my way. I froze while I stayed in the tree, listening to what it could possibly be that was running my way. I heard the thing stop running running right outside the tree I was staying in. I peeked out of the leaves, and immediately recognized what it was that stopped in front of the tree I was in._

_ It was the white Pikmin I had helped earlier. It was easy to tell in the darkness, as the bright ivory color of the Pikmin gave it away._

What's he running from?_ I thought to myself. Then I heard it: something large was chasing after the white Pikmin. The stomps weren't so loud that it could've been that terrible monster that killed the other yellow Pikmin, but the stomps were still loud enough that I assumed that the thing chasing the white Pikmin was probably a Red-Rump or something._

_ Once again, I didn't want to leave him for dead. I had already witnessed fellow yellow Pikmin die; I didn't want to witness another incident._

_ So, I picked up a bomb rock, set if off, and threw it at the white Pikmin while saying, "Hey! Catch!" He should know what to do with the bomb rock._

* * *

"I think the rest is self-explanatory." the yellow Pikmin finished.

"Wow." I simply said, "That was very similar to what happened to me. The monster came and... ate... everyone," It took some effort to say that simple word. Ate. "I was the only one that escaped, I think. For some reason, our poison didn't hurt the monster at all when it ate all the other white Pikmin..."

"Oh..." the yellow Pikmin simply said. I could tell that talking about this topic was a bit uncomfortable, for both me and him. "Well, maybe we should try getting some sleep now." I agreed to that, and we both lied down on the cold, rock floor of the small cave we were in.

_Cave._ I realized that that's what we were in right now. But it wasn't the right one. The caves that we explored with the leaders were huge, and consisted of multiple levels.

Most importantly, those caves were the main place where white and purple Pikmin were reproduced. I was probably the only white Pikmin who was still alive. This realization hit me two days ago, but it was still painful to bear.

There was still one more way though.

I needed to find an ivory Candypop Bud. And the only way to do that was to find a cave. I figured that the best way to find a cave was to travel with this yellow Pikmin to the Tropical Areas.

With that thought in mind, I fell asleep.

All I could see was darkness...

* * *

BOOM...

STOMP...

_It's just a dream..._ I thought to myself, _It'll go away..._

"Hey!" someone whispered beside me, "Get up!" Soon, that same someone was shaking me violently on the shoulder.

"Ugh, what!?" I hissed. It was the yellow Pikmin who had woken me up, and he had a worried look on his face.

"That monster. Didn't you hear it?" he asked nervously.

"Uh, yeah." I replied. He was probably talking about the noises I heard before.

"It sounds like it's headed this way."

"What!? Really?"

"Yes really! Just listen," the yellow Pikmin said.

_Easy for you to say,_ I thought, y_ou have those large ears of yours to listen. _Nonetheless, I also listened with the yellow Pikmin. Sure enough, I could hear the stomps of the large monster getting louder and louder. The ground shaking more and more with each step.

**RRRRRAAAAAAAAA!**

It was that horrible scream again. Memories of my friends surfaced again. All of them being eaten by the monster, and the dismay I felt when the poison released didn't kill the giant creature...

All of a sudden, the stomps stopped, and I could tell why.

The monster had stopped right outside the cave we were staying in. The vegetation and greenery was covering the entrance, but even with that covering the entrance, the monster still seemed to know that we were hidden somewhere. I saw its shadow looming over the greenery covering the entrance, and the cave became a whole lot darker than it already was.

I had that familiar feeling again. That nerve-wracking, helpless feeling. And once again, that instinct was surfacing. The instinct to run away, run straight out of the cave and away from here.

But, of course, I couldn't do that. That creature would catch me for sure if I dared to leave the small cave we were in.

So I waited. And so did the yellow Pikmin. We could hear the monster outside sniffing, obviously searching out where we could be hiding. At some point, I could hear it sniffing the greenery right outside our cave. I froze to the spot, trying not to move an inch in the fear that the monster could hear any sudden movement I make.

To my great relief, the beast pulled back. I didn't give a sigh of relief just yet though. I waited for the beast to finish with his attempts at trying to find us. The temptation of waiting was almost aching at this point, as the yellow Pikmin and I yearned for the beast to just go away.

Eventually, the beast let out one last, horrifying roar, and it began to walk away...

**STOMP!**

BOOM!

Stomp!

Boom...

As the monster kept walking away, its stomps gradually subsided. Once I was sure that I couldn't hear it anymore, I walked towards the entrance of the cave. I slowly pushed aside the vegetation covering the entrance, and took a peek outside.

The rays of the gold from outside filled the interior of the cave. It was bright outside, with the sky a light blue and the a few thin clouds interspersed here and there.

It looked safe outside, so I stepped outside. The yellow Pikmin followed me.

"Whoa. Look at that." The yellow Pikmin pointed towards the east. You could see the tall grass and much of the vegetation had been trampled by the monster.

"That's where you want to head, right?" I asked the yellow Pikmin, "to the east, towards the Tropical Areas?"

"Yeah." the yellow Pikmin replied. "I don't mind though. As long as it's in front of us and not behind." He began to walk towards the east, and I followed him.

"So, do you really believe that your Onion went to the Tropical Areas?" I asked the yellow Pikmin.

"I think so. It was our second choice to stay after the leaders went away. We picked the Forestry Areas as our first though." he replied, "What do _you_ think you're going to do now that... y'know, what happened with the white Pikmin?" I noticed that the yellow Pikmin tried to refrain from mentioning the attacks of the monster. It was nice to know he cared...

"I think I'll just follow you to the Tropical Areas for now," I replied, "I don't really have anything better to do."

"Is that the only reason?" the yellow Pikmin asked suspiciously.

"Weeeell," I started awkwardly, "I also want to try to find a cave with an ivory Candypop Bud. I figured that the best way to find a cave was to travel with you."

"You're doing that so you can try to repopulate the whites again?" he asked. I nodded. "Okay! I don't mind. Besides, you could help me while I try to find an Onion."

_Now how would I, a white Pikmin, be able to help you? All I've ever done is abandon you when you needed help most... _I thought.

One hour.

Two hours.

Three hours.

Five hours...

And more of the same. Towering trees, tall grass, diffuse amounts of vegetation growing everywhere. If I had to guess, I would say that it's about two o'clock.

I could feel it though. I could feel the landscape changing, specifically in the atmosphere. The air was beginning to get more humid. The sun seemed to have grown larger since we started walking this morning, beating down harder. I could even see that the clouds were beginning to thin out, until the sky was completely blue, not a trace of white present.

"I think we're getting close." the yellow Pikmin said, "You feel it too, right?"

"Yeah," I simply replied. Even the trees were beginning to change. Instead of the familiar formidable oak and pine of the forest, the trees seemed to become more spread out, and the leaves on these trees were different than those of the forest. They sort of looked like palm trees.

"There it is! I think that's the border separating the Forestry Areas and the Tropical Areas!" Far off in the distance, I could see it too. The grass seemed to slowly change to sand, and the trees ended where the sand began. The border was about a mile away.

We ran over to the border as fast as we could. I made it in about five minutes, and the yellow Pikmin came from behind at six minutes. When both of us got to the border, we looked out at what was waiting for us at the Tropical Areas.

And we gasped.

"Wha... What happened here?" I said.

"I can't believe it," the yellow Pikmin said hollowly.

I couldn't believe it either, but the scene we were witnessing was all too familiar. I slowly made my way to the scene we were witnessing, and touched one of the limp forms on the beach. I pulled my hand away.

That confirmed it. My hand was stained with the familiar liquid of Pikmin blood.

What I had just touched was the dead body of a red Pikmin.

* * *

**Disclaimer**: Did you _really_ think, just for a second, that I actually owned Pikmin? As much as I wish I did, I don't. That honor belongs to Nintendo.

**Note from Author**: Another cliffhanger! Don't worry; you can be rest assured that I will only put a cliffhanger about a hundred more times after this :). If you _still_ don't know what the giant section in italics in the beginning was, it was flashback from the yellow Pikmin's perspective. Just a reminder, the main character, the white Pikmin, has a leaf on his stem, and the yellow Pikmin has a flower on his stem. For those of you wondering why I updated this story before The Universe of Pikmin, it's because I felt like it. Don't worry, I'll be updating The Universe of Pikmin next, so don't think that I've abandoned it already. Reviews and constructive criticism are always greatly appreciated as usual! Thank you!


	5. Threat

**Note: So yeah, I changed the summary. It's a bit more straight-to-the-point. Anyways, here's a nice, somewhat lengthy chapter for all of yas!**

* * *

"Thirty-seven Pikmin," the yellow Pikmin confirmed, "there are thirty-seven red Pikmin that's been killed."

_Why are you even counting?_ I thought. Just the mere sight of the dead Pikmin was already enough for me. They were all laying in some odd fashion. Almost all of the bodies were amputated in some form or another. Some had limbs missing. Some had their body from the waist down ripped off. And still, other bodies were missing a head.

It was sickening. And what was worse was that I was standing in the thick of it all. The smell made me want to vomit, and the sand was stained with red. In some places, there was too much blood to be absorbed by the sand, leaving small puddles of blood that I always accidentally seemed to step in...

"It was probably that monster who killed them," the yellow Pikmin. I raised my head, thankful that I had something else to think about other than worrying about where I should step, "remember this morning?" he asked.

"Yeah, when the monster had almost found us in our hiding hole,"

"And do you remember? It headed towards the east, the same way we were heading! It must have killed all these red Pikmin." the yellow Pikmin kneeled down and swished his hand around in a puddle of blood, much to my disgust. "The blood's still fresh too, so they must have died sometime today." The yellow Pikmin seemed so interested in examining the red Pikmin, so I decided to examine the dead Pikmin too, mainly because I had nothing better to do right now.

As I walked around, I saw a stem that had been ripped from it's body was left lying in the center of the scene. The stem had a flower on it. It looked symbolic, a lone flowered stem in the middle of a death scene, so I decided to leave it alone.

I went up to a corpse that looked relatively okay, despite having a missing leg. If I looked closely at the body, I could see dark, purple splotches scattered around the body, and noticed a few tiny cuts and wounds too. I recognized the purple splotches to be bruises.

"It looks like they were trying to fight the monster," I said to the yellow Pikmin while still looking at the dead red Pikmin. "There are some bruises on the bodies, and also numerous cuts that seem too small for the monster to have done." The yellow Pikmin didn't respond, so I perked my head up and looked around. I saw that the yellow Pikmin had moved somewhere else on the beach that was quite far away from the scene of the red dead Pikmin. I ran over to the yellow Pikmin, where he seemed to be staring at something.

When I had gotten to the yellow Pikmin, he simply said to me, "Look, it's not just red Pikmin," He swept his hand across another death scene. Although, this scene didn't have red Pikmin in it.

This scene had dead monsters. Spotted Red-Rumps, Pincer Beetles, Hopping Fat-Frogs, and many other monsters that I had recognized were here, simply dead.

Under normal circumstances, seeing the dead corpse of a monster wouldn't faze me, and sometimes I would even feel relieved. But this... this scene even made _me_ feel bad for whatever had happened to these monsters. The corpses looked just as terrible as the corpses of the red Pikmin, with numerous amputations. You could tell that they had only recently been killed, as the bodies weren't rotting... yet.

"You don't think that... they could've been attacked by the monster too?" I suggested to the yellow Pikmin.

"It seems like the only possibility," the yellow Pikmin affirmed, "what else could have killed all these monsters besides that... _thing_." The yellow Pikmin seemed to shudder just saying that word.

"Hey, you know what I just realized," I said to the yellow Pikmin. I had noticed something that was bothering me. "there are no yellow Pikmin here. They might not even be here, in the Tropical Areas, at all."

"How do you know that?" the yellow Pikmin snapped at me, angrily, "maybe... maybe they're still deeper in the Tropical Areas. We've only checked this little part of the perimeter." With that, the yellow Pikmin stormed over to a nearby body of water to wash up. Even though he was angry, he was still being careful not to accidentally fall into the deeper parts of the water. I went over to a spot next to him and began to wash the blood stains off of me too.

"I was just saying what _could_ be true," I told the yellow Pikmin, "for all you know, the yellow Onion could be in other areas, maybe they're still in the Forestry Areas."

The yellow Pikmin stayed silent. I decided not to push the subject further, so I continued to wash off the stains.

When we had finished, the yellow Pikmin said, "I... I just _know_ that they're still not in the Forestry Areas. They wouldn't return there knowing that a monster of this kind of catastrophic scale was roaming those areas. So, the Tropical Areas would be the next best thing."

"Okay, okay. I see your point. So, do you want to try exploring the Tropical Areas?"

"Yeah, sure..." the yellow Pikmin said blandly. I felt kind of bad for bringing him down like that, but I was just suggesting a plausible truth. We began to walk eastward, heading deeper into the Tropical Areas. I looked behind me, and I saw the familiar, formidable oak and pine being left behind, slowly being replaced with palm trees, and the grass turning into soft sand.

I had never been to the Tropical Areas, but I knew about it only from stories from other Pikmin, mainly the red Pikmin, back when the leaders had been here. Standing in the region now, I actually sort of liked it. The climate was always warm, and the feeling the heat of the fiery ball in the sky gently lapping against me felt comfy and fuzzy. It wasn't too hot, it wasn't too cold, and it felt as if nothing in the world could possibly put me down.

But of course, that was just a masked lie. There was one thing that still frightened me, and just thinking about it made me want to hide and never come out...

"You don't think that the monster that killed the red Pikmin could still be roaming the Tropical Areas, do you?" I told the yellow Pikmin as we walked over a bridge that crossed over a small river. This thought aroused in my head as I thought of how frightening the monster was. If the monster was in the Tropical Areas right now...

The yellow Pikmin sighed. "It might be," he said, "but right now, we're not close to it. If we were, we would hear the thumping of his footsteps." The yellow Pikmin was right. Right now, I didn't feel anything, and if the yellow Pikmin didn't hear anything with those large ears of his, then we were safe... for now.

The hours passed, and we still trudged on. We were beginning to get just a little tired, but not much. We were, however, beginning to get a little uncomfortable. The heat of the fiery ball kept us cozy, but sometimes the heat would get to us. We began to start walking under the shade of any palm tree we could find. Somehow, we got more tired under the shade, but it made us feel just a bit better to be away from the fiery ball's rays, even just for a moment.

_Still walking, no caves..._ I thought to myself as we climbed a fallen tree log to get on top of a cliff. I thought it was weird seeing absolutely no caves as we explored the region. Back when the leaders were here, there were caves sprawled _everywhere_. There didn't seem to be one place the leaders explored that didn't have a cave. I had a personal fondness of caves, mainly because they're my natural habitat. I still remember the feeling I had seeing the leader after I'd been plucked. I immediately grew a profound respect for them, with the way they always seemed to know what to do, and did everything in their power to protect us Pikmin. _Why did they have to leave...?_ I began to think sadly to myself. Maybe if they were still here, then we wouldn't have to be left alone to fend for ourselves, especially for us white and purple Pikmin. After all we didn't have an Onion, and we relied solely on the leader for shelter and reproduction...

"Hey, something wrong? Are ya gonna catch up, or what?" the yellow Pikmin yelled, who was quite far ahead from me.

"Oh, sorry!" I yelled back, running to catch up with him, "Just had some thoughts stuck to my mind..." The yellow Pikmin stopped as I caught up with him, and he stared at me for a few seconds.

"Are you worrying about how you're probably the last white Pikmin still alive?" the yellow Pikmin asked. It was as if he had seen right through me.

"Y-Yeah..." I quietly answered. The yellow Pikmin didn't respond. Instead, he looked up at the sky. It was easier to see the sky in this region, as there were less leaves and greenery blocking the sky in this region than in the Forestry Areas. From what I saw, the fiery ball was now low in the west side of the sky, and the western edge of the horizon was beginning to turn a soft orange as night began to approach.

"Maybe we should rest now," the yellow Pikmin confirmed, "it looks like it's almost dark." I hesitantly agreed, realizing how tired I felt. We quickly tried to find a suitable place for shelter. To no avail though. We eventually had to be content with sleeping under a few large leaves bundled up next to a palm.

"This isn't the safest place," the yellow Pikmin told me, "how about I'll take first watch? Ya seem tired enough. I'll wake you up in two hours, and we'll take turns resting." I simply nodded, and laid down with my back to the trunk of the palm. It felt nice, the leaves above me forming a sort of canopy to protect us. The yellow Pikmin peeked out a little opening through the leaves to watch the outside. For once in a long time, I felt safe. I closed my eyes, and immediately drifted to sleep as all became black.

* * *

We kept switching watch every two hours. The yellow Pikmin would wake me up, and I would take watch, and vice versa.

The rests were quick, and two hours passed by like seconds whenever it was my turn to sleep.

It was a different story during my shifts for watching outside though. It was hard to watch through the leaves for two hours straight, even if I was just sitting, as my body yearned for more rest. On my third watch, I was looking out through the leaves, and I had almost drifted to sleep, when I heard a soft thumping. I immediately stiffened, and debated as to whether I should wake up the yellow Pikmin or not. I decided not to, and continued to listen to the thumping. At the very least, the thumping probably belonged to a Red-Rump, but that didn't make it any less foreboding. After a few minutes, the thumping slowly began to diminish and disappear, and I was finally able to relax a little. It was only these fearful moments during the night that were able to keep me up during my watches...

Finally, during the end of my fifth watch, I began to see the environment outside of our shelter begin to lighten up. I waited a few more minutes, and the light from outside even began to light up the inside of our shelter in the leaves. The coming light seemed to wake up the yellow Pikmin, and he got up, rubbing his eyes.

"Good morning," I said to him.

"Morn'." the yellow Pikmin simply replied, he pushed himself up, and walked over to where I was. He stretched, and said, "Let's just wait a few more minutes until it's bright enough for us to know that it's really safe,"

"Okay," I replied. We watched out through the leaves as the light from the sky steadily brightened up the environment outside, revealing the vibrant colors of the various things outside.

Once we had waited for at least ten more minutes, the yellow Pikmin said, "Alright, we should probably head ou-" he suddenly stopped speaking. I saw his ears quickly perk up, and I began to get nervous as to what he was hearing.

"W-What are you-"

"Shh! Be quiet!" the yellow Pikmin quickly interrupted me. I did so, and the yellow Pikmin began to look around frantically. "Do you hear that?" he asked.

"N-No." I replied.

The yellow Pikmin sighed, "Okay then. Just stay quiet and listen. It sounds like they're coming closer..."

_They!?_ I thought. Why weren't we running away? What if this thing was dangerous? A part of me wanted to go outside and just run away, but I decided to do as the yellow Pikmin said. I was interested as to what he was hearing...

Three minutes later, I began to hear it too. It wasn't a monster. There were no thumps or booms from footsteps, no roars, nothing that indicated that it was a hostile creature. Instead, what the yellow Pikmin and I were hearing were voices.

Pikmin voices.

I immediately became excited and nervous at the same time. There were other Pikmin here! But how would they react if they saw two random Pikmin just walking with no specific destination?

"You think we should go see them?" I asked the yellow Pikmin.

"Let's wait a little," he replied, "it sounds like they're getting closer," So, we waited with the sides of heads pressed to the leaves, listening. The yellow Pikmin was right; the Pikmin _were_ getting closer. In a few more minutes, I could begin to hear what they were saying.

"...should try going here maybe. We haven't searched this area yet." said one of the voices.

"Do we _really_ need to be straying so far? We have tons of supplies as it is." said another voice.

"Yeah, and a lot of those supplies are being used up as we speak!" the first voice retaliated. "Besides, we can never have too much supplies."

"And as always, your sense of danger is diminishing..." the second voice muttered.

"What was that!?"

"Just saying that maybe we should try searching for supplies somewhere else. After all, nobody's been to this area of the region, and you never know what kind of monsters could be lurking here."

"And you also never know what kind of supplies could be waiting here. Now let's go!" the first voice exclaimed. I heard the second Pikmin seem to make a sigh of some sort. In a few seconds, I began to hear two sets of footsteps heading our way.

_They must be close._ I thought to myself. They yellow Pikmin seemed to have noticed this also, and he seemed ready for anything to happen. I simply kept looking out the leaves. Finally, I saw them.

It was just two red Pikmin. One Pikmin had a flower on his stem, and the other had a bud. The Pikmin with the flower seemed to be running ahead of the budded Pikmin. The flower Pikmin stopped right outside the leaves that the yellow Pikmin and I were staying in. The red flower Pikmin shouted,

"Hey! What's taking so long?" I recognized the flower Pikmin's voice as the first voice that I had heard.

"Well, I'm not going to barge into unnecessary danger, unlike a certain somebody..." the budded Pikmin muttered. I recognized the budded Pikmin's voice as the second voice that I had heard.

"Ooh! Now what could be under this pile of leaves? Let's see!" the flowered Pikmin began to walk slowly towards the giant leaves that the yellow Pikmin and I were taking shelter in. I immediately froze. Was it a good thing, or a bad thing if the red Pikmin found us?

Too late to think now; the red Pikmin was now beginning to open up the leaves. I saw that the yellow Pikmin had ran behind me...

And before I knew it, I was face-to-face with the flowered red Pikmin.

"AAAAHHH!" he screamed. Before I could grasp the situation, I saw the flowered Pikmin reel his head back and...

_**SLAP!**_

A burst of pain erupted in the side of my head, and I felt my body collapse. _Did he... hit me...?_ I thought weakly. I blacked out while hearing the voice of the yellow Pikmin...

* * *

I woke up and saw a beautiful sight before me.

A large, red Colored Ship, or Onion, was towering above me, slightly to my right. I could also hear a lot of voices. I tried to get up, but as I lifted my head, pain exploded in the left side of my head, and I fell back to the ground with a groan.

"Awake, huh? Y'know, you seem to have a thing with getting your head hit all the time. First, hitting your head on a tree from a bomb rock, and now getting hit by another Pikmin!"

_I know that voice._ I looked to my left and saw the yellow Pikmin walking towards me, followed by the two Pikmin we had seen earlier.

"They didn't mean it y'know." the yellow Pikmin said, "They just acted on instinct."

"Yeah... sorry about that," the flowered red Pikmin muttered. With some effort, I manged to get up, although I was wobbling a bit and I held my head in my hands.

"It's okay, I'm fine." I assured. In all honesty, I felt anything but fine, but I didn't want to show that to them.

Once I had gotten my balance, I took a look around. The fiery ball in the sky was directly overhead, so if I had to guess, I would say that it was about noon. Behind me was the red Onion, and there were other red Pikmin milling about their own business. All of the other red Pikmin cast a few strange glances at us, probably wondering what a lone white and yellow Pikmin could possibly be doing here.

"Anyways," the budded Pikmin said awkwardly, "what are two Pikmin of different colors doing here?" I felt that it was safe to tell them of the intentions of the two of us. After all, they were just fellow Pikmin.

So the yellow Pikmin and I told the two red Pikmin of the monster we had encountered in the Forestry Areas. We told them of how the yellow Pikmin came here to try and find his Onion, and reunite with the other yellow Pikmin, whereas I tagged along to try and find a cave to try and help to repopulate the white Pikmin.

When we finished, the two red Pikmin gave us... questionable looks.

"Oh please, what monster could b stronger than all of us Pikmin combined?" the flowered Pikmin snorted. I was angry at his indifference to our situation; he clearly didn't seem to understand the troubles that the yellow Pikmin and I had to go through.

"Don't mind him," the budded red Pikmin interrupted, casting a warning glance at the flowered Pikmin, "anyways yellow, sorry, but we haven't seen any yellow Onion here in this region in the past few days. It might be somewhere else."

"Oh..." the yellow Pikmin said, disappointed.

"And white, you said you were trying to find a cave to help produce more of your kind, right?"

"Yeah," I replied. The budded Pikmin simply shook his head.

"Once again, sorry," he said, "but I'm afraid that you'll have to rule out caves as an option,"

"What!?" I exclaimed, "But there are caves everywhere!"

"There _were_ caves everywhere." the budded Pikmin corrected, "But haven't you noticed? You say that you've traveled all the way from the Forestry Areas. Didn't you find it strange how you haven't seen a single cave the entire time?" I pondered this for a moment. I _did_ find it strange how we haven't found a cave yet. The budded red Pikmin continued, "The caves are closing up y'know. They're slowly starting to disappear, one-by-one."

"But... that can't be!" I shouted dismayed, "W-What about the white and purple Pikmin? We can only reproduce underground! If we were to go extinct, then how could we repopulate again!?" My voice was at its peak at this point, and many of the red Pikmin that were walking around cast strange glances at me.

"I'm just stating a possible truth!" the budded red Pikmin said, holding his hands up. I eventually calmed down, remembering that I had said the same thing to the yellow Pikmin the day before. Is this how the yellow Pikmin felt when I told him how the yellow Onion could be anywhere?

"Aaaaanyways," the flowered red Pikmin cut in, "for me in particular, I'm curious about that one part of your story. The part where you said that you saw thirty-seven dead red Pikmin? How are you so sure that this 'monster' did it?"

"We're sure!" the yellow Pikmin argued, "We couldn't think of anything that could have done it! We even saw a death scene right next to it full of dead creatures! There was no doubt that what we saw in the Forestry Areas caused the two death scenes waiting for us at the entrance of the Tropical Areas."

"How do you know that the Pikmin group and the creatures didn't just fight each other, and both killed each other in the process? We've had lots of casualties that ended with a Pikmin group completely dying. Besides, no monster is invisible! With the combined strength of Pikmin, I'm sure that a group of a hundred could take on this 'fearsome monster.'"

_Is he taunting us?_ I thought angrily. How could he be so insensitive?

The yellow Pikmin looked just as angry. Then suddenly, I saw him stiffen, and his ears perked up. I recognized that look the yellow Pikmin had.

He was hearing something far away. And from the look on his face, the thing he was hearing was dangerous.

"Oh, I can prove that this monster is fearsome..." the yellow Pikmin quietly whispered, glaring at the flowered red Pikmin. Then, the yellow Pikmin turned to me and said, "We need to go. _Now_."

"W-Why? What are you hearing?" I asked nervously.

"Just c'mon! When I say now, we really need to go _now_!" With that, he grabbed my arm and began to run to the west. I was a bit confused, and so were the two red Pikmin we had left behind.

And then I heard it. The thing that had scared the yellow Pikmin. I heard a loud roar coming from the north, and they were accompanied by a series of booms.

The roar, the booms, they were all too familiar. It came from the creature that we were just talking about with the red Pikmin a few minutes before.

Old instinct began to kick in, and I ran with the yellow Pikmin as fast as I could. For a moment, I began to worry for the safety of the two red Pikmin...

* * *

**Disclaimer: I own Pikmin... a single copy of the game. In all seriousness though, no I don't own Pikmin...**

**Reviews and and criticism are always nice, and greatly appreciated. Everyone knows that more reviews makes the author happy, and when the author's happy, newer and better chapters are written!**


	6. Change

We kept running until we were a good distance away from the red Onion. After a few minutes, we stopped to rest up. In the distance behind us, I could still feel some of the stomps coming from the monster we had escaped. The steady booms inflicted me with three emotions – fear, relief, and guilt, all at the same time. I had fear from the fact that we had almost encountered the monster for who knows how many times, but I was relieved that we had been able to escape from it. I did, however, feel slightly guilty about the fact that we had just left the red Pikmin with no warning, and they were left simply to die at the maw of the monster.

"Don't you think... we should have warned them?" I huffed to the yellow Pikmin. I was still slightly worn out from running, which surprised me, considering that I don't usually get tired from running very easily. Maybe it was just the terror and the shock of running from the threat.

"N...No." the yellow Pikmin stuttered. "They... deserve it." I could hear the malevolence in his voice as he said all this. The yellow Pikmin continued, "They... don't understand... They'll see..."

Despite also feeling slightly angry with the red Pikmin, I still couldn't help but feel bad for them. Before I became a white Pikmin, I was a red Pikmin. I don't remember much as a red Pikmin, but that's only natural. All white and purple Pikmin can only remember what color they were before, but not much else. A lot of the white and purple Pikmin make a fuss over trying to remember what they had done in their "past life", but most of us are fine with living this new life. Besides, I like the smooth, plain ivory color that adorns my body, and the large red eyes that allows me to see and sense the underground.

"C'mon, let's go," the yellow Pikmin mumbled before continuing to head in the direction that we had been running.

"Go?" I asked, "Go _where_?" It seemed futile now to even _try_ to do anything at this point. All hopes of anything seemed dashed with these threats, these changes, and everything else that was lowering me down to a point that made me want to cry out in frustration.

"To the Snowy Areas of course." the yellow Pikmin said, turning to me with a matter-of-fact tone in his voice. "You heard what those reds said. That the yellow Onion isn't here and that the caves in this area are closing up. Maybe the Onion and caves are in the Snowy Areas." I pondered this – could it really be true? As if the yellow Pikmin read my mind, he continued, "I mean, it's not as if the reds explored any farther than the Tropical Areas, right?"

_At least one of us is still full of hope,_ I thought, sighing. It was probably good that the yellow Pikmin never seemed to lose hope. Without him, I probably would have given up long ago back in the Forestry Areas.

"I guess we could try going there." I said. _It's not like we have anything else to do..._

"Good!" the yellow Pikmin said, satisfied. He continued to walk and I steadily followed.

In a few hours, we had made it to the site of the dead red Pikmin on the beach that we had found the day before. But something looked... different. At the center of the scene, where I last saw a flowered stem, there was now a red Candypop Bud. The flowered stem was nowhere to be found.

But that Candypop Bud in the center wasn't all; there were other Candypop Buds too, scattered around the scene, and they were all connected to the center Candypop by small, thin vines. I had never seen Candypop Buds connected by vines before. I went up to one of the Candypops on the outskirts of the scene, and saw that another vine was stretching from this plant too. The vine seemed to be steadily growing.

"Look at this," I motioned for the yellow Pikmin to come to where I was standing. "Look, do you see these vines here? They're connecting the Candypop Buds. And there's another vine growing out of this one, and it's still steadily growing."

"Yeah, so?" the yellow Pikmin simply replied, looking slightly unimpressed.

"It's just..." I don't why, but I found these vines connecting the Candypops strangely fascinating. I had never before seen Candypop Buds connected by _vines_ before, of all things.

"If you like it so much, why don't you hop in the flower?" the yellow Pikmin was had a joking tone when he said this.

"Yeah right." I said back to him, snapping my gaze away from the vines of the Candypop Buds. "You'll know what'll happen if I turn into a red Pikmin. I'll-"

"Yeah yeah, the white Pikmin will cease to exist and all that." the yellow Pikmin interrupted, "Anyways, don't you think we should start heading south now?"

I took a last glance at the vines growing out of the Candypop Buds, and how they were still growing. I decided to call the vines "runners". To me, the vines looked like they were running towards some goal, slowly but surely. I still didn't know what the vines were and what they did, but they still fascinated me nonetheless.

"Okay," I finally said to the yellow Pikmin, "Let's go." We turned to the south, towards the Snowy Areas, and began walking.

As we walked along the beach, my mind turned back towards the red Pikmin again. Were they okay? Had they all...

_Another death scene, I bet..._ I thought cruelly. I still felt as if we had killed the red Pikmin ourselves. We could have saved them! It was so close, in our very grasp!

_But we had been cowards... No, _I _had been coward..._ The yellow Pikmin had all the reason in the world for leaving them behind; after all, he _was_ insulted by the red Pikmin earlier, but me... I could have turned around, could have warned them, could have...

"Really!? Again?" the yellow Pikmin was far ahead of me, his arms outstretched in front of him that told me that he was annoyed. Once again, I was caught up in my thoughts and was now just standing far behind the yellow Pikmin.

"S-Sorry! I'm comin'..." I said, quickly catching up.

"You're a whitey y'know. If anything, _I _should probably be lagging behind, not the other way around."

_No need to state the obvious..._ I thought grumpily. "Fine, fine. Let's just go..." I muttered, moving on.

"Your enthusiasm is killing me..." I heard the yellow Pikmin quietly say behind me. I ignored him though.

* * *

We had barely been traveling for an hour. The fiery ball was just about ready to set, casting long shadows towards the east. My face was sore from being slapped so brutally this morning, and strangely enough, I was beginning to wear out, my legs starting to ache. I didn't see the environment change yet, which brought my spirits down. I was hoping to make some fast progress by getting to the Snowy Areas as fast as we could. I probably shouldn't have been bringing my hopes up though; it would probably take a few days before we got to the border separating the Tropical and Snowy Areas.

Anyways, as we walked with the sun beginning to set, the yellow Pikmin stiffened, his ears perking up. Fear suddenly welled inside of me.

"What is it? The monster?" I asked quickly.

"No," the yellow Pikmin responded. I became a little relieved, but only a little. "It's not the monster, but I _do _hear footsteps. But..." the yellow Pikmin trailed off.

"What? What!?" I said in anticipation.

"It's the footsteps." the yellow Pikmin responded, "They're too light and too quick to be a monster..."

"Isn't... that a good thing?" I speculated.

"That doesn't mean we shouldn't hide though!" the yellow Pikmin said. He grabbed my arm and pulled me to a bush growing next to a palm tree. We quickly his inside and spied outside. Out stems poked outside of the bush in a camouflage attempt.

A few tense minutes passed, and I finally heard it too. Something was running our way somewhere to the north. The thing made quick, rapid steps, and as the yellow Pikmin said, too light to be a monster.

_What is it then...? _I thought with uncertainty.

My question was soon answered. As I looked out, I saw something quickly run in our direction. The thing was colored red, had a stem on its head, and was our size.

It was a red Pikmin.

A pang of guilt suddenly hit me. This Pikmin was probably running from the monster, assuming that it had already attacked the red Onion.

"Okay then, we'll just wait for him to pass and..." the yellow Pikmin was whispering something to me, but I disregarded everything he said. All I could think of was helping this red Pikmin; I don't think I could bear to stand leaving behind another Pikmin in need.

Just as the red Pikmin passed our bush...

"Hey! Over here!" I jumped up from the bush and waved over the the red Pikmin.

"What the hell!?" the yellow Pikmin hissed beside me. "What are you _doing_!?"

Despite the yellow Pikmin being pretty pissed off, I continued to signal to the red Pikmin. He stopped, looked at me for a moment, and began to walk (actually, he was limping) to the bush we were in. I stepped out of the bush to meet the red Pikmin, and the yellow Pikmin very reluctantly followed.

"I-It's you two!" the red Pikmin exclaimed as we went up to him. I recognized who he was now – he was the budded red Pikmin that the yellow Pikmin and I had met this morning, the one who always seemed to be cautious. Now though, he looked horrible. Blood was caked almost all over his body, and numerous wounds were exposed all over him. He was limping slightly on his left leg. I was amazed at how he was able to hold on for this long.

Suddenly, anger contorted onto the red Pikmin's face. "What the HELL!?" he shouted at us. I winced at his sudden mood change. "Y-You two knew, didn't you? About that monster?"

I felt like I needed apologize, "Uh, yeah... but-"

"Hey, it's not _our_ fault that you were being selfish jerks." the yellow Pikmin interrupted me. I took a quick glance at him, and saw that his face was relatively indifferent. His eyes though... they showed pure hate towards the red Pikmin. I sensed that something bad was going to happen if they weren't careful with their words.

"That was just my friend who was being that way!" the red Pikmin retaliated. "And it's _not_ his fault that he was acting that way either! Look, I'm sorry that he was kinda being a jerk, but you should've at least told us, _warned_ us, about that... that... THING!"

I stole another glance at the yellow Pikmin. A bit of the hatred had disappeared from his face, but some of it was still there.

"Okay, we forgive you." I said, deciding that intervening was the sensible thing to do. I had meant to say something earlier, but the words refused to spill out of my mouth. Now, sensing danger, I decided to step in. "C'mon yellow, let's just help 'k?"

The yellow Pikmin, arms crossed, responded, "... Fine." His eyes were still glazed over the red Pikmin in a way that would've made me shudder if I were in the red Pikmin's place.

Thirty minutes later, the red Pikmin was now bandaged up with a few leaves. According to the red Pikmin, he "can't feel much pain right now, probably because of adrenaline." As time passed on though, I noticed the red Pikmin steadily getting weaker, probably because of the pain slowly beginning to wear into him.

We noticed that the fiery ball in the sky was now very low in the horizon. We managed to find a very large bush with a hollow inside. We decided to set up camp here.

"Good night." I decided to say as we laid down in an attempt to bring our spirits up.

They didn't respond.

_Fine, be that way._ I thought grumpily. A sudden pang of sadness hit me right after I thought that. _What happened to us? We've... changed, all of us..._

As I laid my head down, I heard the red Pikmin quietly murmuring in his sleep, "Pincer Beetle... pincers..." I thought that the red Pikmin had lost his mind at this point, but there was something else that bothered me. The red Pikmin kept whispering, "Thing... monster... pincers..."

_What is he talking about? _I was tired though, and before I could come up with any logical solution, darkness surrounded me, and I fell asleep.

* * *

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pikmin... I'm getting tired of writing these disclaimers...**

**Here is the next chapter! Tiny note on the vines that the main character called "runners". Do the "runners" ring a bell, beside it being the title of the story? "Running" is a form of reproduction where a plant reproduces by growing vines, called "runners", and growing new plants of the same kind at the end of the vine. Just wanted to give you a little info on that, because the runners DO play an important role in the story, but you'll have to wait to find out exactly what their role is. :)**

**Oh, and those of you who are still waiting for another chapter of The Universe of Pikmin, I just have one thing to say: Be patient! Remember, I work on this story if I ever have writer's block on anything else, which is why I updated this before The Universe of Pikmin. Now that my writer's block is (somewhat) gone, I'm probably going to start working on other fanfics soon.**

**Reviews and criticism are always appreciated! Remember guests or those who don't have an account, you can review too!**


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